Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw

ABSTRACT

A disposable or reusable collapsible safety drinking straw consisting of a plurality of tubular segments fabricated to nest within one another with a friction fitting wherein the male end of each segment is dimensioned with an opening whose edge is rounded outwardly to a curved/rolled edge and the female end of each segment is dimensioned correspondingly with an opening whose edge is rounded inwardly to a curved/rolled edge. The male and female ends of each tubular segment are designed by dimensioning and material selection such that the tubular segments join together in a liquid-tight junction with other segments so as to be extendable to different lengths, collapsible, packable, and sterilizable, wherein the junction improves safety by separating when a designed amount of force is applied (yield and/or break strength). Tubular segments can be made from any suitable material such as food grade plastic, biodegradable matter, metal, glass, ceramic, composites, concrete, nano-material, and polymers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

This invention relates to extendable, collapsible, safety drinking straws. The invention is directed to increasing the safety of drinking straws as realized by connecting the end elements of successive straw tube segments together to form a straw which will collapse when a predetermined amount of force is applied to allow the straw to yield and/or breakaway so as to prevent injury. The tubes can be selected from any appropriate material and dimensioned for any straw use or application.

The present invention expands the dimensioning of straw tubular segments to include (but not be limited to) controlling all dimensional variables associated with the straw tube device, to include (but not be limited to) the length and width of all tube dimensions as well as the thickness of the material used to make the tube. Tube dimensions include (but are not limited to) controlling the height, width, length, the inner diameter, the outer diameter, the amount/length (arc length and/or degrees of rotation) of curve/roll over on the ends of the tube, and the thickness of the material used. Dimensioning in combination with materials selection to control resistance to drag, rigidity, compressibility, tensile strength, and durability can result in almost any desired yield and/or friction fitting break strength.

Further, with the present invention various sizes of straws can be made with various break and/or yield strengths as is most appropriate for the application by altering the dimensions and/or material used to fabricate the straw pieces. Different sized safety straws can be made by varying the length and number of the segments used to assemble a full length straw of any diameter. Different yield and/or break strengths can be predetermined by using different materials or combinations of materials to manufacture the safety straw segments thereby providing a liquid tight friction fitting between ends which yields and/or breaks away under a predetermined amount of axial force.

Description of the Related Prior Art

Drinking straws have been around for about 5,000 years. The Sumerians invented straws about 5,000 years ago for the purpose of drinking beer. Since that time much effort has been focused on providing extendible straws, bendable (flexible) straws, collapsible straws, and straws that resist kinking. The safety of straws that are collapsible under predetermined amounts of force so as to yield and/or break away or into itself removing the sharp objection penetration risk of the nature of the straw has not been a focus.

At the time of this invention, the related art includes no specific attempts at increasing the safety of existing straws. There are several so called collapsible straws wherein the collapsible component is in the form of making the straw smaller not safer. There are several straws that have a flexible portion to extend the straw, as well as some for providing a flexible portion that minimizes kinking.

To resist kinking of the straw, the relevant prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,982 to H. E. Davis for Drinking Straw on Feb. 9, 1965, which uses reinforcing wrinkles to give flexibility to the body of the straw without kinking.

The relevant prior art related to extendable, collapsible, safety drinking straws includes U.S. Pat. No. 2,557,411 to A. G. Butsch for Childs Drinking Tube on Jun. 19, 1951. This straw incorporates the use of flexible tubing and a swivel joint, which ultimately provides some degree of safety in that the upper portions of the straw that are in some embodiments are flexible or extendable. The straw of the '411 patent does not offer any capacity to collapse in any regular or predeterminable manner, and it does not address the long straw element extending down into the liquid.

The straw in U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,004 to H. L. Levi for Flexible Drinking Straw on Mar. 13, 1962, incorporates a flexible accordion like portion in a drinking straw comprised of three connected tubular segments. The '004 patent straw has rigid upper and lower elements connected to a flexible accordion like portion. While this does produce a straw with an accordion like portion that does yield, there is no mention of yield or break strength, and the design does not address any flexibility or yield along the full length of the lower end tube. The long tube under the flexible element remains rigid. The focus of the '004 patent was to provide a method to mass produce a flexible drinking straw with a new design for automated assembly by a single machine.

The flexible portion of the '004 patent does provide a degree of safety in that the full length of the straw during intended use does in fact yield or break away under axial impact force reducing the risk of harm from the long narrow nature of the tube that is a drinking straw. Meaning that the flexible portion gives way under force in any non-axial direction thereby preventing harm to the user. If you apply force directly downward on the '004 straw, the accordion like upper portion will give way and bend the straw potentially preventing harm to a limited degree up to the end of the accordion section.

This is a safety component to the '004 patent straw. These straws are easily compressed to a limited degree by impact over the length of the accordion like section. Given the state of the art of engineered materials and design, the accordion section of the '004 patent straw could be designed for safety to ensure that it gave way to axial impact force of a predetermined amount. This would allow the '004 patent straw to have a feature point similar to the present invention. The bendable nature of the upper portion of the straw could be made to yield at a predetermined amount of force. This would provide the '004 patent straw with a single point of failure that would produce a safer straw.

This single point collapse, however, does not offer any collapsibility along the full length of the straw used for insertion into liquid vessel, nor does it offer any enhanced safety potential from rolling the tube ends inwardly or outwardly as in the present invention.

The prior art demonstrates flexibility of drinking straws with the use of various materials, designs, and shapes, as in the following patent and patent application documents.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,094,268 and 2,550,797 to J. B. Friedman for Drinking Tube and Flexible Drinking Straw on Sep., 28, 1937, and May 1, 1951, respectively, wherein these patents describe a method and apparatus for making a flexible section in a tubular drinking straw.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,346,187 to M. Mueller for Flexible Drinking Straw on Oct. 10, 1967, that describes a flexible drinking straw made of tubular thermoplastic resin such that it substantially returns to its normal straight position after release of the bending force.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,409,224 to H. Harper for Flexible Drinking Tube on Nov. 5, 1968, that describes an apparatus and method for forming a flexible zone in drinking straw tubes formed of thermoplastic material.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,578 to G. E. Peterson, et. al. for Flexible Drinking Tube on Apr. 15, 1969, which is another thermoplastic drinking tube including a flexible zone, and a method for its manufacture.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,774 to Lispon for Drinking Straw Assembly Kit on Feb. 9, 1993, that is a modular kit of straw elements made of different colors and assembled into a straw from many pieces.

And as in, U.S. Patent Application by Shakur-Jenkins for Modular Straw With Secure Connection under Publication number 2009/0242658 A1 on Oct. 1, 2009, U.S. Patent Application by Shakur-Jenkins for Modular Bendable Drinking Straw With Secure Connection under Publication number 2011/0057050 A1 on Mar. 10, 2011, and WIPO PCT International Application by Shakur-Jenkins for Extend a Straw under publication number 2007/084117 A1 on Jul. 26, 2007, where drinking straws are assembled from modular pieces (some bendable) using a secure friction fit type connection to keep the elements of the straw together.

Based on the above prior art, today's drinking straw can be engineered from any suitable material into a flexible shaped straw with several component parts. Any suitable material for a drinking straw can be any material that is safe for use in human food products, including papers, biodegradables, plastics, metals, glasses, ceramics, nano-materials, and material compositions, that is desired for the type of drinking straw being engineered. Today's plastics alone can be engineered by selection of particular plastics alone or in combination to provide a wide range of differing coefficients of drag as between contact surfaces. This enables the application of material selection as a design criteria for predetermining a particular yield and/or break strength of the resulting connection made with that material.

While today's vast capacity to engineer flexibility does provide a degree of capacity to engineer an increased degree of safety into the drinking straw by making it flexible with the appropriate materials selected, even a full length accordion straw engineered by material design, shape, and dimension to be flexible from top to bottom, fails to meet the safety that the present invention offers due to the present invention's increased safety of design in the rolling of the end edges. The curved/rolled edge design of the present invention presents a unique opportunity for a friction fitted interface between sections which is engineer-able to a particular yield and/or break point as well as providing a round bumper shaped end which is wider (larger surface area) and, therefore, better able to spread force (safer) than the prior art shows anywhere. The material used to construct a straw can be selected so as to provide a specific material with a specific coefficient of drag and tightness of fit between segments so that the force of friction in a friction fitting becomes adjustable by selecting a particular material to provide a particular drag resistance force or a particular set of dimensions to provide a particular tightness of fit between ends of successive segments.

Obviously, a fully flexible straw is not rigid. The present invention also distinguishes from the prior art because the present invention provides the ability of the straw to collapse away in the axial direction under axial impact force for safety as well or better than a fully flexible straw and it retains its rigidity.

The relevant prior art also demonstrates flexibility through extensibility or collapsibility of the drinking straw as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,189,171 to R. S. Miller for Compact Drinking Straw on Jun. 15, 1965, and European Patent Application by K. Inaba for Telescopic Drinking Straw published on May 4, 1984, under publication number 0139074 A2. Having two or three rigid elements that extend to make a straw, combined with today's engineering abilities with materials, affords the opportunity to engineer in some degree of added safety by facilitating collapse under a predetermined amount of axial impact force for the combination of the several rigid elements.

However, the connections in these patent straws continue to decrease the interior size of the straw as each successive element combined is necessarily smaller than the one in place above it in the straw. The present design can be engineered to any suitable interior dimension and the further connection of additional elements will not alter the interior dimension. The present invention remains the same inside dimension regardless of number of segments/elements connected.

Additionally, these two prior art documents' straws also fail to provide a safer edge than the present invention. The Inaba European Patent Application goes the other way as it demonstrates an essentially sharpened edge. Clearly, the more than full circle (plus or minus 270 degrees of rotation as needed per design criteria) rolled edge of the present invention presents a unique opportunity for a friction fitted interface between sections engineer-able to a particular yield and/or break point as well as providing a round bumper shaped end which is wider (larger surface area) and therefore better able to spread force than the prior art shows anywhere.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw assembled from the inventive straw tube element whose ends are curved/rolled edges configured as to provide a friction fitting between one each of the male and female ends of two different tubes whose break or yield strength of connection is predetermined by any proper combination of materials and dimensions so as to yield and/or break away at a particular amount of axial impact force. As above in paragraphs [0003] and [0004], the dimensions and the material of construction of this device can be varied with respect to each other so as to engineer in any desired tightness of fit between ends.

The present invention also includes the requisite individual connector type end caps for each type (female and male) of connector end of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube. As above in paragraphs [0003] and [0004], the dimensions and the material of construction of this device can be varied with respect to each other so as to engineer in any desired tightness of fit between ends. The end caps are suitable for any usual end capping purpose to include keeping out debris and retention of sterilization.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1. Male Connector End Type (Female Receiver End-Plugging Type) with curved/rolled end dimensioned for closing Female Receiver End of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube.

FIG. 2. Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube, single piece.

FIG. 3. Female Connector End Type (Male Receiver End-Plugging Type) with curved/rolled end dimensioned for closing Male Receiver End of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube.

FIG. 4. Expanded View of Two Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes as shown in FIG. 2, shown with the end caps of FIGS. 1, and 3 at their respective ends of the assembly.

FIG. 5. Embodiment of an example drinking straw assembled from five Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes connected together to form a straw.

FIG. 6. Half Section View of Male Connector End Type (Female Receiver End-Plugging Type) with curved/rolled end dimensioned for closing Female Receiver End of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube.

FIG. 7. Half Section View of Female Connector End Type (Male Receiver End-Plugging Type) with curved/rolled end dimensioned for closing Male Receiver End of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube.

FIG. 8. Half Section View of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube, single device/piece/element/segment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1. Male Connector End Type (Female Receiver End-Plugging Type) with curved/rolled end dimensioned for closing Female Receiver End of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube. This end cap is the male connector end of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube only, with the balance of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube removed and replaced with a solid cap placed just above the male connector end such that a closing of the female receiver end of the tube is accomplished by placing this end cap into the female connector end of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube. The male connector end of this partial tube end cap has the appropriate dimensions as designed for closing the particular Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube female end such that it is sealed.

The outwardly rolled end of the tube is curved or rolled over towards the center of the tube into a curve or roll shape dimensioned as needed in order to provide a friction fitting between the end cap and the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube such that the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube is closed to the flow of fluid through that end when the cap is in place. The dimensions of this device can be varied with respect to each other so as to engineer in any desired tightness of fit between ends, thus, enabling this to be an engineer-able design (by alteration of the individual dimensions and of the proportional and direct physical relationship between dimensions) element for predetermining the yield and/or break strength of the connection resulting between two mate-able ends of two Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes.

FIG. 2. The Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube, single device/piece/element/segment is shown. This a single element tube which is the main body element of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube that when used in multiple produces a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw assembled from multiple single element tubes of the same dimension so as to provide a predetermined yield and/or break away force to collapse the drinking straw providing a resultantly safer drinking straw.

The outwardly rolled end of the tube and the inwardly rolled end of the tube are curved or rolled over towards or away the center of the tube into a curve or roll shape as needed in order to provide a friction fitting between the two different ends of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube such that the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube is extended in length by the next Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube fitted into place female end to male end and designed or programmed to collapse under a pre-determined amount of impact force through design by material selection and device dimension. As above, the dimensions of this device can be varied with respect to each other so as to engineer in any desired tightness of fit between ends.

FIG. 3. Female Connector End Type (Male Receiver End-Plugging Type) with curved/rolled end dimensioned for closing Male Receiver End of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube. This end cap is the female connector end of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube only, with the balance of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube removed and replaced with a solid cap placed just above the female connector end such that a closing of the male receiver end of the tube is accomplished by placing this end cap onto the male connector end of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube. The female connector end of the partial tube end cap has the appropriate dimension as designed for closing the particular Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube male end such that it is sealed.

The inwardly rolled end of the tube is curved or rolled over towards the center of the tube into a curve or roll shape dimensioned as needed in order to provide a friction fitting between the end cap and the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube such that the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube is closed to the flow of fluid through that end when the cap is in place. As above, the dimensions of this device can be varied with respect to each other so as to engineer in any desired tightness of fit between ends.

FIG. 4. An Expanded View of Two Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube devices/pieces/elements/segments (as shown in FIG. 1) shown with the end caps at the appropriate ends of the assembly. This figure includes both end caps as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 and two of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes as shown in FIG. 2. This figure shows an embodiment of the invention comprised of the two Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes with end caps as appropriate for each end opening of the two element assembled straw to seal or close the ends of the straw.

FIG. 5. Embodiment of an example drinking straw assembled from five Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube segments connected together to form a single straw. This figure shows an embodiment of the invention comprised of five Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes connected together using the appropriate friction fitting (with predetermined yield and/or break force) to construct a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw of length equal to about five times the length of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube alone. As an example, given a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube length of about two inches (2.54 cm), five such elements fitted together would provide a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw of approximately ten inches (25.4 cm) in length.

The material that the tube is made from combined with the appropriate dimension and arc length of the curved/rolled edge determines the amount of force required to break the connection between Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes. Materials with larger coefficients of drag, and designs with dimensions that provide tighter connections between male and female ends, and through longer rolled edges or minor differences in resulting dimensional size provide the ability to engineer into a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw any suitable yield and/or break strength desired to achieve the rigidity and collapsible force required for a particular application.

The number of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw single tube elements used in a particular length Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw will impact the material and dimensional design and must be considered when engineering the desired end yield and/or break strength and length desired for a particular Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw application.

FIG. 6. The Half Section View of Male Connector End Type (Female Receiver End-Plugging Type) with curved/rolled end dimensioned for closing Female Receiver End of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube. This is the same male connector type end plug designed to close the female connector type end of a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube that is shown in FIG. 1.

Note that rolled end edge is rolled over outwardly to whatever length of curve or roll is necessary to achieve the desired yield and/or break strength of the connection, which in the case of an end cap may be less than the break strength of the overall Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw that this end cap closes. Also note that the curved/rolled edge may or may not be left separated (i.e. whether it is curved/rolled over enough to touch) from the material it was rolled over from after it is rolled over. This separation length/contact after the curve/roll over can be used to engineer the yield and/or break strength desired of the resulting connection between corresponding mate-able ends of two connected Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes. As above, the dimensions of this device can be varied with respect to each other so as to engineer in any desired tightness of fit between ends.

FIG. 7. Half Section View of Female Connector End Type (Male Receiver End-Plugging Type) with curved/rolled end dimensioned for closing Male Receiver End of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube. This is the same female connector type end plug designed to close the male connector type end of a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube that is shown in FIG. 3.

Note that rolled end edge is curved or rolled over inwardly to whatever length is necessary to achieve the desired yield and/or break strength of the connection, which in the case of an end cap may be less than the break strength of the overall Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw that this end cap closes. Also note that the curved/rolled edge may or may not be left separated (i.e. whether it is curved/rolled over enough to touch) from the material it was rolled over from after it is rolled over. This separation length/contact after the curve/roll over can be used to engineer the yield and/or break strength desired of the resulting connection between corresponding mate-able ends of two connected Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes. As above, the dimensions of this device can be varied with respect to each other so as to engineer in any desired tightness of fit between ends.

FIG. 8. Half Section View of Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube, single tubular segment/device, as shown in FIG. 2, is shown here in half cut away view.

Note that rolled end edges are curved/rolled over inwardly or outwardly to whatever length is necessary to achieve the desired yield and/or break strength of the connection, which in the case of an end cap may be less than the break strength of the overall Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw that this end cap closes. Also note that the curved/rolled edge may or may not be left separated (i.e. whether it is curved/rolled over enough to touch) from the material it was rolled over from after it is rolled over. This separation length/contact after the curve/roll over can be used to engineer the yield and/or break strength desired of the resulting connection between corresponding mate-able ends of two connected Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tubes.

Where the ends of the tube are curved/rolled inwardly or outwardly more than 360 degrees of rotation providing an open ring of material around the end of the tube inside the curved/rolled edge, may or may not be rolled tightly enough for the more inwardly material to be in contact with proceeding material in the roll. The tightness of the fitting between the female and male ends can be adjusted in part by varying the length, tightness of fit, and/or the length/amount of the curving/rolling over of the material at the end of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw tube so as to vary the amount of material in contact that will provide friction between connector ends. As above, the dimensions of this device can be varied with respect to each other so as to engineer in any desired tightness of fit between ends. 

1. I claim, a Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw comprising a plurality of tubular segments connected together end to end, said tubular segments having one inwardly rolled over end edge on one end of said tube, and one outwardly rolled over end edge on the opposing end of said tube, said tubular segments dimensioned and made of any material suitable for use by humans as a drinking straw so as to provide a predetermined yield and/or break strength in the resulting friction fitted liquid tight connection between one male connector end (outwardly rolled edge) on one tubular segment and one female connector end (inwardly rolled edge) on another tubular segment of two like dimensioned tubular segments.
 2. I claim, a male connector end cap for any tubular segment of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw of claim one that closes and seals the female connector of said Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw, comprising a tubular segment having one end of said tubular segment filled in closing it, and an one outwardly rolled over end edge on the opposing end of said tube dimensioned and made of any material suitable for use as an end cap for said tubular segment so as to provide a predetermined yield and/or break strength in the resulting friction fitted liquid tight connection between said male connector end cap and the female connector end of said Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw or any tubular segment thereof.
 3. I claim, a female connector end cap for any tubular segment of the Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw of claim one that closes and seals the male connector of said Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw, comprising a tubular segment having one end of said tubular segment filled in closing it, and an one inwardly rolled over end edge on the opposing end of said tube dimensioned and made of any material suitable for use as an end cap for said tubular segment so as to provide a predetermined yield and/or break strength in the resulting friction fitted liquid tight connection between said female connector end cap and the male connector end of said Collapsible Safety Drinking Straw or any tubular segment thereof. 